When entrepreneur and investor Christopher Gardner hears about Milwaukee's high unemployment rate for African American men, he shudders because he knows the odds are stacked against many of them, especially in today's economy.

"When I was in child, everybody who wanted a job had a job. You had A.O. Smith, Master Lock, Briggs & Stratton and Allis-Chalmers and on top of that, you had four or five breweries," Gardner said.

Gardner says bringing jobs back to the state will take two things: political will to create the environment for companies to invest in the area and a strong investment into entrepreneurship.

Gardner, 59, who went from being homeless to one of the wealthiest African-Americans in corporate America was portrayed in the 2006 film "Pursuit of Happyness" starring Will Smith. His story, which started on Milwaukee's north side, is about taking advantage of opportunities and never letting anyone tell you that you can't do something.

It's a story that a lot of people love because Gardner "pulled himself up by the bootstraps." But Gardner would not have been able to achieve success if it were not for someone giving him a chance to succeed. His life-changing moment happened after a sales call to a San Francisco hospital. When he was leaving, he ran across a well-dressed man driving a red Ferrari.

Gardner asked the man about his career and the man — Bob Bridges — told him that he was a stockbroker. Bridges later organized a meeting with Gardner and branch managers at the major stock brokerage firms that offered training programs. Gardner was accepted into a program with Dean Witter Reynolds.

"You have to take advantage of the opportunities presented to you," Gardner said. "And that's what I did."

It took hard work, but it would not have happened had it not been for someone who was willing to take a chance on him.

Most successful people can point to similar "hand ups."

Gardner, like a lot of black men, acknowledges that he had a rough start as a child. He didn't meet his father until he was an adult. His step-father was illiterate and physically abusive, and his mother spent time behind bars. His mother passed to Gardner what he termed "spiritual genetics," which he described as the strong spirit that helps you to forge ahead even during times of adversity.

"People often ask me would I trade anything from my past, and I quickly tell them no, because my past helped to make me into the person I am today," said Gardner, who will be speaking at a fundraiser at Grace Baptist Church in Racine on July 27.

But on that broader question of revitalizing the economy, Gardner said most areas that are doing well have made a strong investment in start-ups. A majority of the new jobs in the U.S are created by start-ups, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a respected think tank that focuses on entrepreneurship analysis and support.

It's not a coincidence that while the state lags in job growth, it is also among the worst-performing states in terms of its rate of entrepreneurial activity over the past decade.

Gardner said the state has struggled to replace jobs lost when large manufacturing companies in Milwaukee started to seek cheaper, non-union employees in the South and overseas during the 1980s. Today, health care, grocery and retail are the city's largest employers. Two of the three offer mostly minimum wage or barely above jobs — and that's not enough to raise a family.

Gardner said workers either need to try to reinvent themselves or seek to start businesses for themselves. There's plenty of room in that space: Of the more than 112,000 companies in the Milwaukee, only 10,000 are minority owned.

Looking at Gardner today, its hard to believe that this longtime entrepreneur and stockbroker was once so poor that growing up as a child he said if you lived anywhere on Milwaukee's north side during that time he was probably your neighbor.

"We bounced around a lot man," Gardner said with a bellowing laugh. "It was a struggle. When the rent was due and mom didn't have it, well you know we did what we had to do."

Gardner recalled living on 8th and Wright streets, 10th and Clarke streets, 9th St. and Meinecke Ave., and several other places.

Gardner, who now lives in Chicago, started his successful business, Gardner Rich, from his apartment in Presidential Towers with just $10,000. He specialized in the institutional marketplace. His first account was the Chicago Teachers' Union.

He now is the CEO of Happyness, a Chicago-based public relations start-up. It will offer brand marketing and hope to work with some of the country's largest businesses.

When I spoke with him, Gardner mentioned the way comedian/activist Bill Cosby scolded the black community and the flack Cosby received for sounding harsh.

Gardner said Cosby had his points — and a lot of things do fall back on us.

When Gardner was homeless and washing his son up in a public bathroom, he remembers asking: "How did I get here?"

His answer was brutally honest.

"I drove myself to the situation I was in," he said.

Gardner said he had to realize he had the the power to change things, and that was empowering.

"I realized that if I drove myself here, then I had the ability to drive myself out of here," he said.

It's a good lesson. Here's another one: Giving a person a hand up can put them on the road to success. That's a drive we all should be willing to help others make.